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Opening this weekend in New York City is 8 BIT, a documentary that focuses on folks who create art and music that’s inspired by video games. It covers the demo scene, chiptunes, machinima, stuff like Corey Arcangel’s Super Mario Clouds, and more. Its also perhaps the first real stab at such a thing, without all the factual errors and condescending tone that has come with previous attempts (that PBS documentary from a while back comes to mind).

For more info on the movie, and to find out if it might be playing in city near you (the film’s creators have no definite plans as of yet, but they do hope to have it tour the country in some capacity) just go here.

If you live in New York City, mark your calanders and clear away November 30 through December 3. And if you don’t, make sure you’re in the Big Apple for the Blip Festival.

It promises to be the greatest gathering of chiptune maestros in North America ever, with appearances by Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Mark DeNahrdo, Glomag, Bubblysish, Virt, Cory Arcangel, Hally, x|k, Portalenz, Aonami, YMCK, and many many more. History will be taking place at NYC’s homebase for 8-bit music, The Tank.

A heads up for all New Yorkers out there; the teenaged chiptune trio Anamanaguchi has a new album coming out and they’re having a party/show this upcoming Saturday, August 26. The venue is The Tank, which has become the hotspot and homebase for chiptunes in NYC. Also playing will be everyone’s favorite around these parts, Nullsleep, and The Depreciation Guild.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Segagaga, a RPG/business sim in which the player must take control of Sega and prevent the company from going under. It was one of the final games released for the Dreamcast and appears to be a goodbye present of sorts to its loyal fans. The whole thing is jam-packed with references and nods to it’s legacy, both obvious and obscure, but due to the nature of the gameplay, most have been unable to really get a proper taste of it all, or even get very far.

But at least now one can view the end sequences via YouTube. Check out part 1 and part 2 and see (and here) how many things you can recognize. Thanks to IC forum-ite “Dark Age Iron Savior” for passing along the links via this thread, which also explains and reveals a bit more about this gem of a game. The videos along are enough to put a tear in the eye to any Sega devotee.

Included is a look at the arcade scene that’s pretty much dead these days (which is true for most parts of the country, but still), the best places to buy a game (outside of the major retail chains, of course), and gaming culture that persist in the Big Apple (yes, there is one).

I should perhaps note that a forum member at the IC boards helped a bit in the research department, when he reported the closure of an arcade not too long ago.

A California-based art student who goes by the moniker “pixel form” recently modifed an NES, transforming it into a visualizer for sound. Here‘s a page which details the process with plenty of pictures and videos.

A finely detailed and absolutely beautiful sculpted rendition of the first Colossi is coming this October in Japan. It’s slated to be 195 mm tall and will cost 10,290 yen, or about $90 American. Start saving those pennies! Here‘s a nice montage pic.

Posted in Museum, News | Comments Off on News: Shadow of the Colossus Figure

Fans of Timetop/Daidaixing/GaoMing Electroncic Company’s line of products, or el-cheapo gaming devices from China in general, might be interesting in knowing that a new version of their GameKing console has recently been unveiled.

Whereas the GameKing 1 resembled the original, non-front/backlit GBA, the GameKing 2 looked like a PSP, and the first version of the GameKing 3 appears to be based on the Game Boy Micro, and this second iteration (of GameKing 3) has an entirely unique design, particularly the action buttons, which may not look comfortable, but its at least “different”. And here’s a picture of what might be a working production model. Solid, technical information is scare, but it looks to be backwards compatible with all previous GameKing software, which curiously enough, comes in cartridges that strongly resemble the Game Boy Colors’.

The manufacture’s site is not exactly informative, so the best place to go for answers is this Wikipedia page, which breaks down the technical specification of the pervious GameKings, such as the fact that despite it’s relatively poor display, some games do feature good speed and audio. Plus there’s a listing of all the games available thus far, which not surprisingly are rip-offs of 2600, NES, and SMS games (with the very best one supposedly being Duck Man, a clone of the NES Darkwing Duck). And a more detailed breakdown of various games, as well as pictures of their cartridges (along with promises of screenshots) can be found here.

Credit goes to IC forumite Takashi for the head’s up, who also pointed towards Move Star Game, by the same folks behind the GameKing, and which just might be its killer app (assuming it’s actually a GameKing game – it’s still unconfirmed if any GK sytems support color).

The Katamari Damacy homepage has come to a close. There is a goodbye message that contains a few words from the staff, such as how surprised they were that the page managed to last for 2 years. They also thank all the fans who’ve played the game, and state that everyone who worked on the game has gone off to pursue their own projects. There’s also mention of another project from the “Katamari Doctor” (no doubt Keita Takahashi, who has already stated numerous times that he was more than reluctant to create sequels to his creation) along with a somewhat cryptic message stating that it doesn’t have rolling, nor does it involve making things big.

>Brandon’s note:> The series isn’t over though. I just heard it from the man himself. It’s just that he’s no longer working on it, and the ‘katamari team’ no longer exists as such.